[Rbvght]

I had problems with the DAB radio in my 2018 i3 since the day it was delivered, in April this year. Every few minutes or so, the radio would stop playing for a few seconds, and ‘no signal’ would appear in the display.

After the head unit was already replaced, with no effect, the car spent some more days at my dealer last week. They now did extensive testing and observed their own 2017 i3 did not have the same reception problems as my i3 has. Then, after having tried to find the problem and fix it, they extensively talked to BMW Netherlands and then informed me that while my radio indeed does not meet reasonable expectations, they do not seem to be able to fix it.

The reason is that the 2018 i3 model has a different radio design from the previous version. I understood from the repairman than the difference is especially in the antenna configuration, which is no longer an antenna diversity design. Diversity antenna designs can generally improve reception, and engineers have shown this is also true for DAB (see here).

They told me they tried to put a 2017 radio configuration in my 2018 model, but did not manage to do so because parts and cabling are different and cannot be exchanged.

While the dealer will now talk to the BMW distributor to see what to do, I feel quite disappointed with spending so much money on a good car sound (DAB, Harman & Kardon speakers, etc.) and having a poorer radio experience than my earlier cars…